ABC yanked last night’s scheduled episode of “Norm” just hours before airtime because of its depiction of an armed, disgruntled office worker.

“We just decided it was not appropriate to air tonight,” said Jeff Bader, senior vice president of program scheduling and planning at ABC.

The episode – titled “Norm’s New Boss” – opens with a sequence in which Norm’s recently fired former boss climbs on top of the office building across the street and trains a high-powered rifle with a laser sight on Norm (Norm Macdonald), who is visible through his office window.

The show, a repeat from last season, was judged inappropriate because of this week’s violence in Los Angeles, where five people, including three children, were wounded by a gunman who attacked them at a Jewish community center.

The episode’s opening was also similar to several deadly incidents of so-called office rage in the news recently, including the fatal shootings of 12 people by a disgruntled day trader in Atlanta last month, and the murders of three people a week later by a former employee of a heating and air conditioning company in Pelham, Ala.

However, an ABC spokesman insisted that the decision to pull the episode was fueled primarily by this week’s violence. “We thought it would be better to err on the side of sensitivity,” the spokesman said, adding that the episode will likely be seen later this summer.

The scheduled episode was replaced with another rerun from last season titled “While You Weren’t Sleeping,” in which Laurie (Laurie Metcalf) finds it impossible to sleep alongside her new boyfriend. Laurie then recruits Norm to help by joining Laurie and her man in bed, a situation which angers Norm’s new girlfriend.

The rescheduling of the “Norm” episode is similar to action taken at the end of last season by The WB, which delayed the airing of the season finale of “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer” because of its similarity to the deadly shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. The “Buffy” episode eventually aired in July.